Purpose: This analysis was conducted to evaluate cardiovascular toxicity of commonly used anti-VEGFtherapeutic agent, bevacizumab, in treating patients with cancer. Methods: Clinical studies evaluating the efficacyand safety of bevacizumab-based regimens on response and safety for patients with cancer were identified usinga predefined search strategy, allowing cardiovascular toxicity and other side effects of treatment to be estimated. Results: In bevacizumab based regimens, 4 clinical studies including 282 patients with advanced cancer (includinggliomas, cervical, breast and ovarian cancer) were considered eligible for inclusion. These bevacizumab-basedregimens included docetaxel, irinitecan and carboplatin. Systematic analysis suggested that, of 282 patientstreated by bevacizumab based regimens, hypertension and thrombo-embolism occurred in 2.5% (7/282), whileonly 3 patients reported cardiovascular events (1.1%). No treatment related death occurred in bevacizumabbased treatment. Conclusion: This systemic analysis suggests that bevacizumab based regimens are associatedwith reasonable and accepted cardiovascular toxicity when treating patients with gliomas, cervical, breast andovarian cancer.
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